GRMLN Empire

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About

Empire is GRMLN’s album for the cruis’n world: Upbeat rock ‘n’ roll with the feel of ‘90s pop-punk. The new tracks are much more rock-driven than Explore’s gentle, dreamy tunes. Wanting to capture the sound of a live band, Yoodoo Park—the born-in-Japan Southern Californian behind GRMLN—recorded the album with his brother Tae San Park on bass and friend Keith Frerichs on drums. Album standout “Hand Pistol” is a catchy mix of polished-up Superchunk and poppier Jimmy Eat World. There’s “Cheer Up” with its ‘50s-style chord progression and climactic, fiery plea of “Don’t break me down!” Empire’s quietest number is the closer “Dear Fear,” an acoustic strummer about the damage time can do. The record’s energy and brevity translated to a concise recording process. The nine songs (all but two are under three minutes) were recorded and mixed in a span of five days at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco with Patrick Brown and Sean Paulson (Toro Y Moi’s Anything In Return).

Artist Bio

GRMLN is the musical project of 21-year-old, Yoodoo Park. He was born in Kyoto, Japan and moved to southern California at a young age (though he still goes back to Japan every summer). Yoodoo started playing music at the age of 13 when he was given a bass guitar and has been playing music ever since.

During the summer of 2010, Yoodoo started recording relaxing songs for himself to listen to in his car during lazy summer afternoons. The Explore EP, captures this time in Yoodoo’s life with clean sounding guitar rhythms and a mixture of drowsy melodies. Yoodoo’s 2013 full-length, Empire, was less of a follow-up and more of a departure. Empire’s upbeat rock songs and ‘90s pop-punk influenced sound eventually led to the alternatively stormy and peaceful tunes of Soon Away. The new album is much more aggressive than previous releases—a world away from the dreamy sweetness of Explore. Soon Away reflects on the desires and regrets that come with age and experience. It’s GRMLN’s most mature work yet, and also the band’s catchiest.